6 More Months of Zero Waste | September - Back to School!

It’s time for back to school, but this year is a little different for most people for many reasons. For anyone starting on their zero waste journey, this is a great opportunity to practice your zero waste and plastic free skills. For those who have been practicing for years, this is a good reminder to keep learning!

Back to school means new text books, new notebooks, new supplies. But make it zero waste! Once you’re used to thrifting and foraging, it’s easy to find school supplies second hand. Family and friends might have pens and notebooks they will not use (almost everyone has a surplus of pens somewhere in the house, right?), thrift shops and rummage sales usually have school supplies. Backpacks, school clothes, lunch boxes, water bottles, and other supplies are easy to thrift. Keep your eye out for yard sales! Pens, pencils, paperclips, and rubber bands are surprisingly easy to find dropped on the sidewalk. A quick sanitize and they are good as new. Most college bookshops have almost all the books in a syllabus second hand. Make sure you are donating your books at the end of each semester!

We can work at not using plastic and not generating waste while we are in school, too. We can pack our lunches, use digital media, avoid the campus cafe and bring our coffee from home. Many hand outs can be recycled, or reused. Art supplies for projects can be foraged, borrowed or culled from “junk”.

The other opportunity we have while going back to school is to educate anyone and everyone who might not be familiar with zero waste. When we lead by example, when we reach out to answer questions, or notice when people are surprised at our choices and make the effort to talk about and explain them, we are starting the seed that could grow into someone else’s Zero Waste Journey. It’s important to talk about your zero waste choices when ever and how ever you can! Teaching others about the perils of waste and plastic is an exciting avenue for our knowledge.

Back to school is a time to educate others about zero waste, but it’s a good time to educate ourselves as well! Even if you’re not in school, the school season is a good time to pick up a new book, delve into research on a subject you want to know more about, or talk to someone you’ve been meaning to about their lifestyle.

It might seem daunting when you have life milestones, like going back to school, sending your kids to school, or whatever circumstances you might be in near the school year, to stay zero waste. But thinking ahead, putting aside convenience, and remembering our overall goal for ourselves and the planet, will make your back to school one more step our our zero waste and plastic free journey!

If you are new to this series, here’s what we are working on for this 6 month block. Follow along or pick and choose challenges to try.:
June 2020- Say NO, Say Yes
PLASTIC FREE JULY
August 2020 - Carry No Disposables
September 2020 - Back to School/Educate
October 2020 - Beach Clean
November 2020 - Hidden Plastic
December 2020 - Repair Before You Replace

We started our tackling new zero waste challenges six months at a time in 2019: January 2019 - Trash Audit
We separated and looked our trash to see what we are throwing away and what we can reduce.
February 2019- Declutter Everything
We went thru what we have to declutter and reduce.
March 2019- Switch to Paper
This month we moved to paper to get one step closer to reusables.
April 2019- Compost
Composting is an easy way to reduce food waste and prevent it from reaching the landfill.
May 2019- Meatless Monday
One of the best ways to improve the environment is to stop eating factory farmed meat and industrial fish. Small steps lead to big change so this month we gave up meat (or dairy or fish) for at least one day.
June 2019- No Bottled Water
We gave up bottled water as an avenue to give up more disposable plastic in Plastic Free July.
July 2019 - Plastic Free July!
Go plastic free this month!

In late 2019, we continued our journey to becoming more zero waste:
November 2019 - Zero Waste Kit
We created a zero waste kit to help us be more zero waste in our day to day life.
December 2019- No Gifts
We took Dec to give no gifts and get no gifts.
January 2020 - Clothing and Fast Fashion
This month we explored what fast fashion is, and how we can stop buying it forever.
February 2020- Use Mass Transit
The shortest month seemed like a good time to explore alternatives to driving our cars.
March 2020 - Bathroom Make-over
You’ve swapped out a few items to more sustainable choices around the house. It’s time to tackle a full room.
April 2020- Grow Your Own Food
April marks the start of spring in the continental USA, and when we can start growing food easily. But there are many ways and time to grow your some of own food.

My Homeschooling History, Part Two

I was homeschooled until I was eight and a half, and then again later in life. My mother was was my primary teacher, but I feel that everyone I met taught me. Find the first part of my story here. When I was almost nine years old, I started going to school part time.

When I was eight and a half, I remember the age distinctly, my parents decided to try school again. I don’t know why it was so at this time, but I remember that it was very much talked about and I was involved in the decision. For the first 6 months it was on a trial basis. We started only going part time. It might come as no surprise that the school my parents chose was one for alternative education.
The New School of Monmouth County is a private alternative school started by an English woman in the 70s. This year is it’s 50th anniversary! It started out in borrowed spaces until it got it’s current home in Holmdel NJ. There are several well known alternative style school in the US (monessori being one), but The New School is unlike any that I have seen, it’s one-of-a-kind and unique. It is based on the British intergrated day, which follows the idea that all your subjects can be learned in project or theme based work, instead of having set subject classes to go to at certain times. Each year, an over arching theme is chosen. Projects within those themes, as well as work sheets and side projects, are how students get their math, science, history, geography, etc… There are no set classes for these subjests and much of the learning is self guided.
TNS (The New School) is family grouped into three classes, approximately equivilant to K, 1st, 2nd grades in one class. 3rd, 4th, 5th in another, and 6th, 7th, 8th in the last. We call them Little Class, Middle Class, Older Class. These groups are roughly based on age, grade, educational advancement, and emotional advancement. Meaning sometimes a younger child might be in the middle class, sometimes an older child will stay in the little class, and occationally, a student will stay an extra year or two before graduating on to highschool. When I came into TNS, I started in the Middle Class. Each class room in the rambling red school house has no desks, no chalkboard or white board, no school like structure. The rooms do have communal tables, pillows on the floor, lofts, books, games, art supples, “junk” areas, tote trays for students to keep their work in, and other items catered to the age group or area of the school (a science solar room, the library, a music room…). Every morning, after students arrve and put away thier jackets or back packs in the lockers which are scattered through out the buildling, and after they have stored thier lunches in the communal kitchen, each class holds a Book Corner. Book Corners are held twice a day, once in the morning for everyone to touch base and see what they will be working on for the day and once in the afternoon, to recap and look towards the following day. There’s a snack and lunch time each day, which also incorporates some free play time. Sometimes and some days of the week are devoted to outside classes, like phys ed, which maybe a trip to the park, swimming at the Y, or gymnastics. Sometimes there are contained classes like languages, music, or art. But most of each day is spent working on various projects towards the common goal of incorporated learning.
My earliest memories was going to my first ever Gingerbread Night. There are many such events throughout the school year. Here the school gathers to make innovative and creative gingerbread houses, sometimes following the year’s theme. Out of school activities like these, self guided learning, alternative takes on learning, family groups classes, home style breaks, and more are only a few ways that TNS is like homeschooling. It was a fairly natural and smooth transition from one to the other. Getting used to daily interactivity with other students took some getting used to among other aspects of going to school. But I ended up loving most of the school experience and staying until I was old enough to graduate. I credit The New School with furthering my drive to self educate, to learn about many artists, art forms, different cultures and life paths. Having teachers that were smart, interesting, respectful and willing to listen to the students (as they guide us, we help guide them), had a huge impact on me and my education.
Once I moved into the older class, my mother took over teaching the middle class. She had assisted or volenteered before, but when she would no longer be my primary teacher in the school, she took the class on full time and still works there to this day. Being family grouped was not the only way in which family played a role at TNS. The director, and founder’s children also attended, many siblings were encouraged to attend. I could talk a lot more about TNS, how it works and why it works. Since this is a homeschooling history, the most important thing to note is that TNS and homeschooling share a lot of methods and goals and bother were intregal to my educational development. I left The New School at age 14 and went on to a conventional high school but The New School was never far behind me and I would return to it again and again.
I first returned soon after graduation for a Older Class trip to England. I participated and later taught in the Summer Program at TNS. I went on to teach Language, Color Theory, and Modern Art at the school at various times in my life. For many years I would attend school events regularly or be a chaperone on trips or yearly camping excursions. My mother still works there which makes revisiting easy, but I also deeply believe in the mission and method of the school.

Public high school was an entirely different story….

What was your middle school experience? What kind of school did you attend? Are you interested in alternative education? Have you ever researched or visited or attended any alternative education institutes?

My Homeschooling History, Part One

Homeschooling is somthing I haven’t talked too much about in this space. Maybe bc I don’t too often talk about my history, or maybe bc I am an adult now and I don’t have kids myself. Homeschooling and education in general, but alternative education specifically, has always been a big part of my life.

Both my parents were educators. Or at least intended to be. They met while in teaching college. I have an older brother who has a different father (also a teacher) than myself. My brother went to public school all his life, something I think my mother regretted. I was homeschooled until I was 8 and a half. My father had given up his educational career when I was still an infant, but remained an intellectual. My mother worked mostly as a stay at home mom for much of my childhood, sometimes working part time when she was able. She also did a lot of non paid work, like running a group for mothers with young children. When I was 6 or 7 my mother worked at a farm stand and I would often go to work with her. A formative experience for me.

My mother was my primary teacher and she kept extensive notebooks on my early education. My learning was mostly experience and project based. I don’t remember too much about homeschooling until I got a little older and we joined a homeschoolers group. From my perspective this group was like-minded hippyish (for lack of a better word) people, like us. I didn’t learn that many homeschoolers are deeply religious until later in life. Some people I remember clearly in the group were a jewish family that invited us to all the celebrations, played music and sang and we would all go to music festivals in their camper together. Another were a “normal” suburban family with a split level home and huge wooded back yard, we would get co-op deliveries dropped off from a big box truck in their driveway to share with the entire group. We had homeschooling neighbors who had raspberry bushes and an above ground pool. We could walk to their house from ours and they had several children but my best friend was the girl my own age. This family moved away to a magical handmade home in the PA woods, complete with wild strawberry fields, a whole tree as support beam for the house, and a cold stream with crayfish on the property. As a group we went seining in the bay, to museums and parks, went apple picking, to nature centers, made crafts, or to educational lectures and events. We visited temples, Native American festivals, churches, musical events, plays and theater, and all sorts of cultural events. We traveled to historic areas nearby when we could. Some of us also attended Nature Camp, which was a local school for all things outdoors and in nature. There we learned to walk quietly in the forest, respect wildlife, sing bird songs, build fires, identify edible plants, observe nature and be part of it without harming it.

I never remember having to solve math problems or learning historic events in a traditional way. We never had “homework” or sat down at a desk at a certain time to learn writing, reading, maths. I would learn practical skills while learning about other things and interests. In my memory this is very self guided, but I’m sure my mother oversaw everything and steered me towards learning the important subjects. We read a lot: stories and fiction, but also art books, comics, non fiction, and informational and educational books. I have many memories of being at libraries, getting read to at night, and learning all sorts of things from books. But I also distinctly remember not being a very competent reader until I was about 8 years old. We created lots and lots of art. Art was a conduit to learn about many many things as well as art itself. We asked a lot of questions. I remember asking my parents questions, our friends, librarians, random strangers. In my education everyone was a teacher and everyone we came in contact with knew something interesting to learn. We had friends who ran restaurants and I would play on the flour sacks, learning about kitchens and making change and waiting tables. At the farm market, I would help my mother bake pies in an industrial oven, make flower arrangements and wreaths, pick and sort corn, listen to Spanish speaking farm workers. My aunt owned a metaphysical shop and I would run the register, help customers and stock shelves. Everyone’s vocation became a teaching moment.

Sometimes we took classes. Ballet, cooking, languages, pottery, and other education taught by someone other than my parents. And sometimes I went to school. I remember going to a kindergarten for a few weeks (in my memory). It was the first time I had seen a computer. It was a bizarre contraption. When I was 8 and a half, I started attending The New School of Monmouth County part time. This would start a relationship with this private alternative school that last to this day.

What was your early education like? What do you remember most? What were lessons you learned? Which of those stuck with you through your life?